Eyebrow + helix

By nyanmaggie · May 30, 2013

So a couple days ago I decided to head into Planet Ink in Ottawa for a couple new piercings. They have a 2 for $85 deal which I obviously had to take advantage of. I think on Wednesdays it's 2 for $65 but I'm not from Ottawa and I was only going to be there for a few days so I just took what I could get. I went in on a Sunday at like 11 am, and to my surprise the piercer was in and available. In my hometown we have one tattoo parlor and the piercer is only in 2 days a week. I guess they get a lot more business in the big city because Planet Ink has a piercer on duty every day of the week.

Anyways I went in with my friend who agreed to pay for half the cost because he's super ballin like that. I told the cute tattooed guy at the counter what I wanted which was an eyebrow and a forward helix piercing and he gave me a form to fill out. I only filled out like, my name and the date and signed the little waiver part because I really doubt that they actually give a fuck about my address and how I found out about the shop and whatever. Oh yeah, so I chose Planet Ink because umm I guess because I saw the big 2/$85 sign on the side of the shop. Also I looked on their facebook page and it said both of their piercers had been piercing for 7+ years. The inside of the shop was extremely clean and professional. It was huge with plenty of magazines and comfy seating in the waiting area.

They had t-shirts and stuff for sale along the walls as well as body jewellery in display cases. I didn't get a long time to look at everything though because my piercer was all set up and ready to go within 3 minutes of my getting there. I really don't remember her name, I'm not even sure that she mentioned it.. but she was very pretty and had multiple cool and unusual facial piercings. She gave off a chill hippy vibe. I liked her a lot. She led me and my friend to one of the rooms in the back. There were like, 5 different little studios I think. Like their offices and tattoo rooms and such I remember thinking it was like a little body mod mall. So hippy-chic got me to sit down on the little doctor bed/chair thing, and she marked up my eyebrow and helix. Okay so this part is pretty stupid. She handed me a little mirror and I checked the placement of my eyebrow but I didn't give a fuck about my forward helix because like, I guess I figure the piercer knows the best place to put an ear piercing. Also I was really preoccupied with my eyebrow because it was only my second facial piercing and I was really excited about it. I've already had multiple inner ear piercings so I wasn't really giving a shit about the helix I was just kind of getting it to add to my ear project which I've been working on since I was 15. So anyways I didn't end up checking the placement of my what was supposed to be FORWARD helix. She asked me which one I wanted first and I told her probably the helix cause cartilage piercings are always little bitches and she agreed. I remember he telling me what she was doing like, "okay I'm opening a clean needle and blah blah" but I was already very comfortable with the cleanliness and reputability of the shop so I didn't pay much attention to the whole steralizey process. I trusted her.

Ok so even as she was piercing the helix, I couldn't really tell what part of the ear the needle was going through. She told me to take a deep breath in and bam. She was an exceptional piercer and the barbell was in before I had time to even process a needle going through my ear. It was phenomenal. I didn't even have time to get up and look at it because within 10 seconds she was clamping my eyebrow. She told me this one was cake compared to cartilage piercings. And oh my god was she right. The last time I got a piercing that wasn't cartilage I was 8 and I was getting my lobes. Since then I have gotten my septum as well as a bunch of random inner ear shit, which are all very thick cartilage. I for one used to hate it when people said "oh I didn't even feel the piercing" but seriously getting your eyebrow pierced compared to getting a cartilage piercing is the simplest shit in the world. Now I did kind of do this weird thing where I shook uncontrollably but I guess that was probably because the adrenaline was already pumping from the helix piercing. My body was like wtfff stop shoving needles through meee!! Some people say the clamping hurts but it didn't really bother me. Kind of like getting a tattoo you have to work for your pretty new mod, you gotta earn that shit! So anyways in conclusion; either cartilage piercings hurt a lot and I have just gotten used to them, or flesh piercings actually just don't hurt at all. Either way in my opinion the eyebrow is a very very easy piercing. It also might be my favourite out of all my piercings so far! I love it soo much. As soon as she had the balls screwed on I hopped down from the table thing and shrieked at my reflection in the mirror. I was in looove with it already. Then I took a look at my "forward helix" and it turns out it was a regular helix. I was slightly disappointed but like whatever. I was going to add a couple regular helixes to the collection eventually, I was just waiting because I find them kind of boring. It does compliment my rook and tragus in that ear quite nicely though :).

So the moral of the story is, check the placement of the little marker dots before they stick the needle through! I blame myself for not clarifying what I wanted. Turns out that they call it an 'anti-helix' so there ya go. I guess they didn't know what I meant when I said forward helix. I guess hippy piercer assumed I knew how to take care of new piercings cause she didn't really go over aftercare, which was fine with me.

Okay so healing. It has only been a few days but I am feeling no pain at all from my eyebrow. It's not even uncomfortable. There is no swelling or bruising it looks like it has been there for years. I haven't been sleeping on it because my helix is on the same side and oh my god does that little sucker hurt to sleep on. It wakes me up in the night when I roll over onto that side. I've also smashed my helix with a hula hoop a couple times and that was no fun at all. I actually haven't been cleaning them because the leave-it-the-fuck-alone method seems to have worked well for me in the past. I guess I might start doing some sea salt soaks but other then that I just avoid touching them. I did clean the helix with soap and hot water after a particularly bad hula hooping accident.

Oh I did forget to mention that you could maybe ask what guage the piercings are gonna be if you care at all. I wanted my eyebrow to be cute and little so I made sure it was a 16 guage. I don't know if that's regular for eyebrows but most of my other piercings have been 14 guage.

I don't recommend getting an eyebrow piercing if you have to hide it from your parents or something. It's a very obvious piercing and even having bangs won't keep it concealed for long. Go for a septum or a tongue if you wanna be sneaky :) it took my mom a year to notice the shiny bits of metal stuck up my nose. I'm pretty sure nobody has anything against ear piercings, even weird ones, cause they're really common now. But if you're gonna get a cartilage piercing make sure you're ready to commit to it because it really does hurt for at least a few weeks.

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